By Scott Allen

Pitching Probables:

Friday – Dontrelle Wills, 2-2, 4.39 ERA. (1-0, 1.80 in Arizona). The reunion tour in Detroit continues for former Tigers. Only two weeks removed from leaving Detroit, Willis has has a couple of starts in Arizona. He’s been wild, to say the least. He’s walked 10 batters in only 10 innings. He left his last start a week ago Thursday against the Atlanta Braves after only four innings.

Saturday – Edwin Jackson, 3-6, 5.18 ERA. Jackson has struggled somewhat since leaving Detroit for Phoenix in the off-season. He gave up a lot of runs in April and early May and has been working to lower his ERA ever since. He still doesn’t look completely comfortable in Arizona yet.

Sunday – Ian Kennedy, 3-4, 3.57 ERA. His ERA took a small hit this past Tuesday at Fenway against the Boston Red Sox, in a 6-3 loss. Kennedy though overall, has been a pleasant surprise. Given up for dead by the New York Yankees, Kennedy has been able to keep many hitters off balance. His ERA leads all starters.

Hot: Chris Young – He has risen from a miserable 2009 season. He is the best shot right now for being the Dbacks representative at the All-Star Game. He is 9 for his last 24 in his past 8 games after Wednesday night’s game in Boston. He has 21 total bases, 3 Home Runs, including a walk-off shot against the St. Louis Cardinals this past Sunday, and a slugging percentage of .905 in his last 8.

Not: Overall….the whole team. Recently, on an individual basis, Stephen Drew. Once the team leader in batting average, he has really taken a dip the past two weeks. In his last 8 games, he is 4-21. He’s leaving batters on base in crucial situations.

Name to remember: Another tough one. Most of the Dbacks have been anything but memorable so far this season. I can’t even promise who I name here will still be a part of this team come Friday when the series starts. The Dbacks started what many think will be a fire sale the other day when they traded fan favorite Conor Jackson for pitcher Sam Demel from the Oakland A’s. I will say Sam Demel is your name to remember. He debuted on Wednesday night with a perfect 8th inning against Boston, including 1 strikeout. Demel is almost sure to still be a part of this team on Friday night.

As for the trade, I ran through a brief analysis yesterday, but I wanted to mention one more thing.  Yes, this trade was made with cost-cutting in mind.  But no, it was not made because it had to be.

Dave Dombrowski, Jim Leyland, and everyone involved with the Tigers have been telling everyone that this is not a fire sale and I believe them.  Yes, they did pare close to $10 million off of next seasons payroll, but the players they traded are mid-level as far as salary is concerned.  Edwin Jackson is due a nice raise from the $2.7 million he made in 2009, but he should come in at around $5 million next year.  Curtis Granderson is due to make $5.5 million in 2010.  The players Detroit brought back are all at or very near the major league minimum, so the value here is high for Detroit.  But these aren’t players that are three years away from helping the Tigers, they can help right now.

In addition to the trade, Dombrowski also inked catcher Robinzon Diaz.  Diaz spent last season with the Pirates and Detroit was rumored to be pursuing him this past July.  Diaz will give the Tigers four catchers with big league service time, and word is that Dusty Ryan is now available via trade.  If a deal isn’t reached quickly, Ryan could be DFA’d to make room on the roster for one of the players brought in.

Another option would be to trade Gerald Laird.  The Tigers love Laird’s defense, but with Alex Avila seemingly ready to take on a larger role behind the plate, perhaps Laird’s $3 million or so in salary could be better used elsewhere.

Then there are the LOOGYs.  Detroit will have five left handed reliever once this trade goes official.  Fu-Te Ni and Bobby Seay are the incumbents, with Brad Thomas, Phil Coke, and Daniel Schlereth recently added.  Schlereth will likely start the year in the minors but Dombrowski has said that Thomas is expected to be a part of the big club.  Coke and Ni  have proven their effectiveness enough that you would expect them to be big leaguers as well.  Does that make Bobby Seay expendable?  My gut feeling is that Seay will be gone soon, as he is arbitration eligible and while he has performed beautifully for the Tigers over the past few years, Coke and Ni can do his job at a fraction of the cost.  He will be just one more domino to fall in the wake of this trade.

The thing to remember as a fan is that neither Justin Verlander nor Miguel Cabrera are being shopped, no matter what overzealous writer would like to think.  Rumors of Cabrera’s departure have been grossly overstated while Veralnder’s name hasn’t even really been mentioned.  If you were having a fire sale, you would probably deal your most sought after commodities.  Those two aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

So while the Big Deal is somewhat about the money, its more about maximizing on an opportunity to get younger and better.  For Edwin Jackson, a pitcher with one good half season in his career, a pitcher who came crashing back to Earth after his rise to all-star status, the Tigers got Max Scherzer, who is better and cheaper right now, and has more upside.

They turned Granderson, who has regressed as a hitter no matter how much we all love him, into two cost-controlled left handers, both with great arms, and a centerfielder that is five years younger than Grandy with the potential for the greatness Granderson wasn’t quite able to reach in Detroit.

This trade not only makes fiscal sense, it makes baseball sense, too.  And that’s why the decision was made to deal away the players they did.  Yes, the move saves the team money in 2010 and beyond, but this isn’t a fire sale.  The moves that follow, and there will be many, will help to transform an aging roster into a younger one.  The high-priced veteran talent on this team will likely remain intact, augmented by the youth of Austin Jackson, Scott Sizemore, Avila, and Scherzer.

Remember folks, almost $60 million in salary comes off the books following this season.  And the Tigers will have a roster full of talented, young players to build around for 2011.

There are so many sources to link to in writing this post so instead I will just point you all over to MLBTR where they have a tidy little updated post on the trade.  All we are awaiting is an approval of medical records, which likely won’t happen until tomorrow.  Other than that, it’s all over but the screaming.

So here it is; the Tigers have agreed to trade RHP Edwin Jackson to the Diamondbacks and CF Curtis Granderson to the Yankees (I just threw up in my mouth a little).  In return, the Tigers will get RHP Max Scherzer and LHP Daniel Schlereth from Arizona along with CF Austin Jackson and LHP Phil Coke from New York.  The Yankees will also send RHP Ian Kennedy to the D-backs.

I have no idea why the Diamondbacks wanted to make this trade, but all accounts had them as the ones pushing hard for the deal.  Giving up five years of Scherzer and six of Schlereth for two of Jackson and four of Kennedy seems like a bad idea to me, especially when Scherzer and Schlereth both have such upside.  But Josh Byrnes had made dumb moves before (see Byrnes, Eric: contract) so maybe that’s just his thing.

The D-backs are getting a still young Jackson who is coming off his best season as a pro, but also one in which he faltered badly in the second half.  The Tigers did a nice job capitalizing on Jackson’s value here.  Kennedy doesn’t have the electric stuff that really any of the other pitchers in this deal have, but his control and average fastball should play better in the NL West than the AL East anyway.

The Yankees get the outfielder they wanted in Granderson, but I’m not wholly sure on why they wanted him so badly.  We all know of Grandy’s “quad 20″ season of 2007, but since then he has taken a major step backward at the plate.  Look, I love Granderson, but the guy really struggles against lefties.  I think he has the talent to yet become the complete player that he should be, maybe a change of scenery will help.  Well, that and the very short porch in right field in New York.

As for the Tigers, Dave Dombrowski did better than I think most people will give him credit for here.  He traded an erratic pitcher who has had only one great half of a season in his career and a centerfielder who really can only hit righties for four very talented, young, major league ready pieces.  Here’s the skinny:

Max Scherzer

No doubt the centerpiece of this trade.  Scherzer is a former first round pick with a great fastball and excellent secondary pitches.  His big league record is only 9-15, but he has averaged better than a strikeout per inning while limiting his walks and homers.  This kid is the real deal and he’s only 25.  Plus he’s under team control for five more seasons.  I was shocked when I heard he could be involved in this trade.  Shocked.

Daniel Schlereth

The son of former NFL Lineman Mark Schlereth, Daniel was another first round pick.  He’s just 23 and has a good fastball and has shown the potential to close games.  This is more than just a LOOGY.  He walked 15 batter in just 18.1 big league innings last year, but fanned 22.  In the minors, Schlereth fanned an incredible 13.5 batters per nine innings, but walks were still an issue.  If he can harness his command, he may be the steal of this trade.

Austin Jackson

As recently as the beginning of last season, MLB.com rated Jackson as the 27th best prospect in baseball.  He is lightning fast and has a smooth swing.  He needs to improve his pitch recognition as strikeouts are a bit of a problem so far, but at age 23, Jackson projects to add power as he matures into a big league hitter.  I’ll put it this way: think Granderson about five years ago, but from the right side.  Last season at AAA, Jackson hit .300 with a .354 OBP and 24 steals in 28 attempts.

Phil Coke

Coke is 27 and has pitched just one full season in the show.  Last year he appeared in 72 games for the Yankees, logging 60 innings.  He had a sterling 1.067 WHIP thanks in large part to holding LH batters to a paltry .195 batting average and .214 OBP.  He has a live arm with a fastball that reaches the low to mid 90s.  In the minor leagues, Coke was a starter.  He made 20 starts in AA as recently as 2008 and performed very well so he could be converted back to that role as the Tigers ‘pen seems to be crawling with lefties now that he’s on board.  I would have preferred to see a starter here, but maybe that’s what Dombrowski is viewing him as.  We will see.

Of course many a Tiger fan will be heartbroken these days.  First Placido Polanco is allowed to leave town, then they trade away Granderson.  Keep the faith good friends.  Rest assured that this trade was certainly not all about the money.  The Tigers made this deal with an eye on not only being a better club in the future, but guys like Coke, Schlereth and Scherzer will help the 2010 club immensely.

Also be sure to note that the 40 man roster will now feature no less than five left handed relievers, so it’s very likely more moves are coming before the Tigers open camp in the Spring.  The one thing that worries me is the idea of handing Jackson a starting job in centerfield.  If he struggles, there isn’t really anyone else ready to step in and play everyday out there.  I wouldn’t be shocked if Detroit now looked to an inexpensive veteran that can play centerfield.  Someone like the Braves’ recently DFA’d Ryan Church.